There are exciting developments afoot in Australia, where the Victoria State government has agreed funding for a three year pilot of a programme for parents and young people, based on the Seattle Step-Up model. Jo Howard, of Peninsula Health, has been involved in the campaign for the last five years and views it as a huge achievement at a time of government cutbacks. Work is underway to set up staff and systems, and Jo reports that they are already inundated with parents. There is hope that, if successful, the model will be rolled out across the state and country as a whole.

The Age carried a report of the project this week, entitled “More parents under attack from their violent kids“. The report gives some statistics and quotes a parent’s experience. Community Services Minister, Mary Wooldridge, is reported as saying, ‘By intervening early to support attitudinal and behavioural change in adolescents, we can reduce the risk of them graduating to other antisocial and violent behaviours – and enhance family safety.”

Currently Jo is gearing up for the 1st Australian National Conference on Adolescent Violence in the Home, taking place in Melbourne next week, but I hope that we will hear more about the plans – and the conference – after that.